Ephesians chapter 4 tonight is Parenting isn't for cowards. The next week will be shade for our children Parenting isn't for cowards and I thought really that one you might put a subtitle in there if you want the blessing of children I think my children were more of a blessing some days than others. And so most of the time they're a great blessing. And so there we are. And so I'm sure for my parents, I was a blessing to them sometimes more than others. And so that's just the way it is, but children are a blessing from the Lord. Something that has sort of really almost gone by the wayside in our society today, that children are a blessing and they are that. And it says for us in this book of Ephesians, You find here, and we are already started. That's good. Ephesians 6, verse 4. Ephesians 6. I may have told you something wrong earlier. Ephesians 6, verse 4. I did. I can hear it already. Ephesians 6, 4. Excuse me. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Colossians 3.21, a few pages over. Colossians 3.21, 3.21 of Colossians. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Parenting isn't for cowards. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I pray that you help us as we look into your word, maybe be reminded of the joy of children, how the children are an heritage, they are a blessing, and we are to, as parents and grandparents, to train them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We are to be the example. We are not to provoke them to anger. We are to encourage them, yes, discipline, yes, but also to encourage, Lord, help us to balance all of that, that we'd be wise parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and that we would we would be the examples we should be. So Lord help me this evening, in Jesus' name I pray, amen. There's an old Chinese proverb that says, one generation plants the trees and another gets the shade. And one generation plants the trees and another gets the shade. So my parents planted some trees for me to get the shade, spiritually speaking. We had planted some trees over on our property over there in Wirtland and they're growing up really well. And so whoever buys the property when we leave, we'll have about four nice shade trees on that side if they haven't been knocked over or fallen down. Or if we don't knock them down here, we knock the other anyway. But that's the idea. We are still living in the shade. Aren't you living in the shade of what perhaps your parents and grandparents taught you? Yes. I was talking to Judge Lewis of L.A. County just this past Friday, and we're talking about parenting. He said, my dad would grab a hold of my hair, jerk me here, there, and y'all. But you know, I needed to have my hair jerked around sometimes. But I still remember that, you know, he taught me what I was to do and if I did not do it it was on me and so I remember my I don't think my I couldn't they couldn't do it now but the jerk my head around like that but I got spanked etc we we were corrected and I should have been corrected there's nothing wrong with correcting your children when they need correcting But we have the shade of their moral standards, the shade of their spiritual commitment of their value system, their sense of right and wrong, their commitment to duty. And we today, if the Lord's church is coming, need to plant some trees to where our children remember, well, mom and dad taught me that from the Bible. Mom and dad taught me that. We need to be doing that rather than cutting the trees down and letting our young people go out into the world without any training, and that's exactly what we're seeing today. Young people are going out into the world without any spiritual, moral training, and they don't understand what truly America is about. More importantly, they truly understand what the gospel is about. So this question faces us today because our future is going to face, I think it's weird to be said, perhaps the blistering heat of an increasingly ungodly world. The blistering heat of an increasingly ungodly world. So are we planning anything? Are we leaving our children totally exposed? It's obvious to everyone of us that our culture, as the morals go, values, ethics, duty, commitment, it's all disintegrating. The value systems on which our life is based, of which lives are based today, is convoluted, skewed, and out of sync with God's divine order, and that's the big issue. Our society, even in America, we have promoting things that are clearly contradictory to God's divine order. We can see it. And when you do that, it's like we are a ship. We just have no steady. It's like we're rocking back and forth, and we've let loose from the moorings of God's word, and we're floundering in the middle of the ocean. Well, we are. Matter of fact, we might even be doing the circle around the big thing that's called Saqqazine. God can still do a miracle. In our country, we've allowed the massacre of millions of unborn children still yet today. And yet in 2021, 63-year-old man was sentenced to six months in jail for fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend's parent with a serving fork. And yet, what about the people who are, through medical use, are changing, trying to, attempting to supposedly change a child's gender from one to the other? What used to be a criminal offense is now promoted as what should be done. What about them? And yet, a man, they shouldn't have killed his girlfriend's, ex-girlfriend's parent, but six months for that, and nothing for this? Nothing at all? Matter of fact, not only are you, can get away with it, you're supported. The animal rights activists promote the equality of all created things by this statement, a rat is a pig, is a dog, is a boy. I tell you, it's not true. Not true. We are created in the image of God. That's why God is so adamant. Who shall shed man's blood? A man shall his blood be shed. That has never been rescinded. And so when you, and I'm now preaching to the choir, By the way, choir did an excellent job of pushing that up there in that one spot. Thank you for doing that. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but we've got to come back to what God has said for us, our lives. One pastor said that in the 1990s, more people More were in graduate school, more young people were in law school graduate schools than all other graduate programs combined in the 1990s. You wonder, we're going to litigate ourselves to death, but what is the standard? The standard should be God's word. That should be our standard. But when you leave that behind, it's one person's word against another. Are we going to be sentencing people to prison for killing parents and let them run free, those who kill their own children, who are doing such terrible things to children with intentionality? What kind of system are we leaving? What kind of morality are we leaving? What kind of standard are we establishing for the next generation? We have an entire program in Kentucky called the Kentucky Family Caregiver. Entirely. For grandparents, great-grandparents who are the custody of their grandchildren. That's the whole program. Grandparents and it helps the grandchildren. We have a certain amount of money We can give them for clothes and shoes etc each year So it's it's more and more just ask the court system what the lawyer for one of the counties I was listening just this past money money money for last he said how many times he's sitting in the court and you have children and grant and Grandchildren who are going to live with some person other than their parents how much he says it's epidemic in our area. And so we were talking about getting the news out. He said, give it to the lawyers in our five counties and let them know about the Kentucky Caregiver Program for grandparents who are taking on this extra load. Are we planting anything or are we leaving our children, grandchildren totally exposed? Exposed. Well, God has standards. He set the standards. Any mother knows that a child is supposed to be a blessing, and they are, essentially, and they are, usually, when they arrive. And there are some mothers, though, who do not want them all at all, and they want to choose to have an abortion. Just the article Mueller mentioned this past week, a lady wrote an article. The title was, I'm 72 and don't have kids. I don't regret it. He says, it's a regrettable argument shows up discrediting the goods of having children and grandchildren. Can I just say that if you're able to, and I know it's a very difficult thing, mothers who cannot have children, women who can have children, But basically, God has told mankind that we are... Do you know if there's a terrible thing with the birth rate? Every, almost every country, they're soon going to be not having enough people to support themselves and the birth rate's falling, falling here in America. It's like 2.1, I think it is. The maintain average in everybody is under 2. I think it's one of the Asian countries is under 1. So we are atrophying. Instead of being fruitful and multiplying, let God handle the feeding of all the people. I'm telling you, there's enough intelligence in the world today to feed the world and continue on. America, if we would let loose of things, could feed probably the entire world if we would just let us do it. Oh, but there's just too many people on Earth. Who says? Who are you to say there's too many people? God's the one that decides all that. Now, there are some mothers who, having given birth, after a while decide not to want that child anymore. I'll have to say, there are a few times in our parenthood that I would like to send them back, you know, send them back here. Can we just trade this one in for another? And I'm sure my parents thought the same about me, and perhaps about you. I don't know, I won't say for sure. But the Bible says, lo, children are a heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his what? Reward. Oh, a reward. That's what children are. They're not something to be cast aside, not something to be dreaded. And by the way, if you live the moral life, you wouldn't be worrying about having an abortion either. No one ever says if you would live the kind of life you should live, you won't become a child. But no one ever says that. Now, no, there's some who are married, etc. But abortion is always wrong. Worsen's always wrong. It is. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth happy. I said, happy is the man that hath his quiver full. We're talking this morning in Sunday school. And I said, well, no, we're talking about, you know, the Lord understands. And the Lord gives you 10 kids, 10 children to watch over. 10 kids, 10 kids. Yes. Oh, that's fine and dandy. Large families were a thing of the past. Who has decided not to have large families? It's not God. If you're able to have a... It is God's prerogative. Children are a blessing. If you wait, you can afford them. You'll never have children. Oh, I've got to wait. Listen, if you're a young person and you're going to get married someday, don't say, I'm going to wait until I can afford children. Let me just tell you, in our culture, you can never afford to have children. But if you can, I can almost say you can't afford not to have children if God wants you to have them. So there's supposed to be a joy, supposed to be a benediction, which is simply an utterance of blessing from the Lord to grace our lives with fulfillment and meaning and happiness and satisfaction. I can tell you my mom and dad sometimes did not consider me a benediction on their lives, but that's what children are to be. They're given for our joy, and yet they turn out, sometimes there is heartbreak upon heartbreak, yes. Left exposed to the world and unshaded by the proper kind of protection, they will indeed break our hearts, possibly, but let's get back in touch with God. What's the basic perspective? You need your Bibles tonight as we're gonna start. Genesis chapter four, please. Genesis chapter four, are children a positive thing? Can I just say, without them, we cease to exist. Without children, humankind will cease to exist in a couple generations. Genesis 4, 1, and Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bear Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord, a man from the Lord. He's allowed me to give, the Lord was the source of this child, by the way, God is the only one who can give life, everlasting life, it is God alone. So if you're here today, which you are here, because I can see you, God gave you life. Some of you a little more, few more years ago than me, some of you a lot more recent than I. He gave you life. 25, same chapter, 425. It says there for us in 425, and Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son and called his name Seth. For God, she said, has appointed me an other seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. He sold her children as a gift. Children are a heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Now, she had not read that psalm as being the first person, woman, but the truth is still the same. It comes from God who does not change. So even back then in Genesis 4, children are an heritage of the Lord. and the fruit of the womb is his reward." True. 17, chapter 17, verse 20, even for Ishmael. 1720, if you think about this, Abraham had 12 grandchildren by Ishmael, and 12 great-grandsons by Jacob, 24 princes who flooded the world with people. One person tied it all the way back to Abraham. Have you ever thought about that? Not just the 12 tribes of Israel, but the 12 tribes of Ishmael. 17, 20, 17, 20. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee. Behold, I blessed him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. 12 princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. What was the reward? I blessed him. How will he bless him? With 12 children. He's going to have 12 children, 12 grandsons for Mr. Abraham. What a great blessing. 29, please. 29, 31. We talked about this on Mother's Day. 29, 31. 29 of Genesis 31. And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb. But Rachel was barren, opened the womb of Leah so she could have a son. And she conceived, the next verse, and bare a son. And she called his name Reuben. For she said, surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction. It wasn't like, oh my goodness, what has happened now? I've got to get rid of this child somehow because it's all about me. No, it's like, praise the Lord. I'm now a child. He's looked upon my affliction. I'm going to have a son. The very next verse says, and she conceived again and bear a son and said, because the Lord has heard me that I was hated. He therefore given me this son also. And she called his name Simeon. She thought when her firstborn son, her husband, would love her, she found out not only why her child, her child loved her for sure. By that time she got the second son, she knew the second son was to fill again the void of love not felt by her husband. The point is this, God gave her children so she could enjoy their love. So her children, there's nothing like a child's love for their mother. Now I know children love their father, but there is something about your love for your mother. I just don't know what it is. God put in there somehow, but it's like, man, I'll strike my father's hand, but my mother, I wanna give her a hug. And so that would be, I don't know, it's just the way we are through God's ways designed us. But not only, look at chapter 30 verse 1. Rachel's not had any children yet, and Rachel saw that she bared Jacob no children. Rachel envied her sister and said to Jacob, give me children or else I die. And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel and said, am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? God that does this, by the way, and look at verse 6, and Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hast heard my voice, and hath given me a son, therefore she called his name Nan. It wasn't her son, it was Biabilha, but she rejoiced that God has given me a child that I can call my own. And later on, look at Leah in chapter, same chapter, verse 17, we find in it says, and God hearkened to Leah and conceived the bearer of the fifth Jacob the fifth son and Leah said God has given me my hire because I've given my maiden to my husband she called his name Issachar and Leah conceived again and bared Jacob the sixth son and Leah said God has endued me with a good dowry now while my husband dwell with me because I've born him six sons and she called his name Zebulun I'm not seeing anywhere here is my goodness how's this gonna work I'm with child what's gonna happen here it's like wow praise the lord another one Another chance to influence the world for Christ. That is absolutely foreign, even in most churches today. A chance to influence the world for Christ by God giving me another child. It was Susanna Wesley. I think she had over 20 children. Charles and John Wesley being two of them. And yet she managed, by God's grace, I think sometimes we, we sometimes in our culture today are encouraged to stop things when perhaps God has not stopped. It's, he opens the womb, he closes, now I know, again, my wife and I could not have any more children after, after Kendra was born. but which could have started earlier, I think, perhaps, or we could not, we sometimes were just, you know, I've got to, I've got to decide all these things. Now, perhaps this is not even on the table for most of us. I got to decide all these things instead. You know, Lord, if you want this to happen, you can make it work out. And if it works out, if it happens, I'm going to trust you through that. Instead of, oh, but what will they say if I have a third child? Or a fourth, what will this, if I have a fourth child? Or what's that missionary coming in with eight children? Doesn't he know better than? You see how our thinking sometimes has gotten warped? Instead of praise the Lord for what He has bestowed upon you, if you have children, and praise the Lord for those who have adopted children, thank you for doing that. Praise the Lord, the Lord has blessed you abundantly, and thank Him for it. Instead of, oh, what's gonna happen now? God has given you arrows to influence society. The only thing you're gonna take to heaven with you is whom? Your children. Everything else, when you die, is staying down here. First come, first serve on all the rods and reels in my basement. First come, first serve. If you like to bait castor, get there early. So if you want all the equipment and gear, and I guess if my son and daughter get first care. But whatever's left over. The cats. Steph and I both go together. First come, first serve on the cats. And so there we are. So by jumping at that one, I can see. 33 verse 5. 33 verse 5. We're still in Genesis, just to make sure, because I've done so many wrong. Genesis 33 verse 5. Jacob's returning to Esau. Esau's been so angry 20 years earlier, he wanted to kill him. So he starts sending out the children and the mothers and the children, and he leaves Rachel and the last two for himself at the end, but he sends the first ones out. You go first, you go first, you go first, you go first. We will not get into all that. And he looked up his eyes and saw women and children. And said Esau, says, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant. all these children, it's by God's grace. I think, I just want, if nothing else tonight, children are an heritage from the Lord. And we are to be planting the trees of moral truth and God's word and these things to protect our children. There's nothing wrong with parent and grandparent, you protecting your children from the outside world. There's nothing wrong with that. Oh, but pastor, you gotta let them, no, you don't have to let them go their own way. like wait till they get to be 21 let them decide we're not gonna tell them anything to do when they get 21 they'll make wise choices they will not make wise choices on their own the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it who can know They are a benediction, a bestowing or utterance of a blessing. That's what children are on our lives. In Ruth 4.13, please, Ruth 4.13. A little further over now, Ruth 4.13, Joshua judges Ruth. There we are. If you want to find it that way, right before 1 Samuel. What a wonderful story, isn't Ruth a wonderful book? The story of that, it is such an amazing story. Ruth 4.13, so Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife, and he went in unto her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son, and the woman said unto Naomi, blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel, and he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and the nourisher of thine old age for thy daughter-in-law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him. I'm thinking that's a good thing. Don't you think that's a positive thing when they say that about a child being born? Yes. Proverbs now, a little further on. Proverbs 23, 24. Proverbs 23. God gives us our encouragement. God gives them to us for our joy. For our joy. Pastor, you're only preaching this because your children are out of the home already. Okay, well, there's some truth to that. No, no, there's not. It's something we should all, no matter what our age, we should be reminded, and perhaps you're going to have your children are going to ask you, how should I, my children just can't get on my nerves. My children, what am I supposed to do? Mom, dad, grandma, grandpa. And so let's turn to God's word and give them biblical counsel 23-24, and the father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice. And he that begetteth a wise son or wise child shall have what? Joy of him. Joy, joy. That's God's purpose. 27-11, same book, 27-11. 27, 11, my son, be wise and make my heart glad that I may answer him that reproaches me. A wise son? A wise son indeed gladdens the father's heart. 29, three, 29, three, same book, 29, three, but whoso loveth wisdom rejoices his father. But he that keepeth company with heartless spendeth his substance. So whoso loveth wisdom rejoices, makes the father to rejoice, says Henry Morris. That's the idea, but whoso keepeth company with harlots, you already are or soon will become like your friends. That's just a simple axiom that's true. You already are or soon will become like your friends. If you're a young person, choose your friends wisely. If you're a middle-aged person, choose your friends wisely. If you're older, choose your friends wisely. You already are or soon become like your friends. Can two walk together except they be agreed? The Bible says that. Now, how is it that with God's purpose that children are to bring joy and happiness, contentment, satisfaction, love? But instead, why is it they bring heartache? Marriages and families in our time tend to be war zones, disaster areas. Homes are not havens anymore, it seems. There's no peace and joy and contentment and bliss. Husbands yell at their wives, yell at their children. Wives yell at their husband, yell at their kids. And kids are disrespectful and disobedient. So it does not make for a happy home. does not make for a happy home. I will have to confess during COVID, I just, I was not what I should be toward my wife and I could blame COVID. It wasn't, it was, it was me. Well, you were in the hospital. Yes, I was in the hospital. Yes, I was. But that was not an excuse. So I did not treat my wife and family as I should have treated them because I just found myself getting angry at the least little things. Have you ever found yourself like that? Sometimes you get angry. And I've come to realize that she's remained the same and supportive. And who was it? You can look around, but you know who it was? The I in the middle of sin is me. It's me, S-I-N. So I had to confess. I've confessed one big time, I think it was. And I've tried to change since then with God's help. And I'm still working on that. But I'm telling you, you can let yourself get out of shape. And it is me. and your home. Can I just say, dads, I'm just going to put it out there, if you're not living right, your home's not right. It's up to you. I have found most often that if you're living right, dads, husbands, your wife will just be happy to go along and she can respond to somebody new. But I'm telling you, husbands, if you're not leading your home right, you need to change. I need to change. I'm confessing. Now, you don't have to get up and we're not going to have a confession. Because you're not preaching, I am. But I'm telling you, there are some things we need to change. Most likely, there are. rather than conflict, intimidation, estrangement. We need a generation of people who are exposed to the truth. We need to leave some shade for our children and grandchildren. But Papaw said this, and Papaw always went to church, or Papaw always read his Bible, or Grandma always did this. That needs to be our grandchildren. My grandma and grandpa, I saw them reading the Bible. They followed God's word. They were faithful to church. They told me what the Bible says. They live moral lives. We need to leave that for our children and grandchildren. We do. Well, how to be practical and just a couple things about the Houston Police Department published a timely little booklet called How to Ruin Your Children, tongue in cheek. Guaranteed 99% infallible here's what the Houston Police Department Said after they've experienced so much delinquency and criminals in their area number one Number one begin with infancy to give your children everything they want give them everything they want to when he picks up bad words and Laugh at him. Three, never give him any spiritual training until he's 21 and let him then decide for himself. Four, avoid using the word wrong. It may develop guilt feelings in the child. Five, pick up everything he leaves around so he will be experienced in throwing all responsibility for everything on other people. And it goes on and on and on. You know, even our culture can see that without discipline and instruction, it's a potential for disaster. It is. It was just, was it the Notre Dame speaker, the football kicker for Kansas City that just gave a speech about what everybody in America would have agreed to 20, 30 years ago about the roles of men and women in the home. And he has been vilified by the liberal media and the elites for simply saying a wife can find, a woman can find fulfillment in home as a mother. Where's that come from? That's like from the Stone Age. No, I'm going to tell you it's coming from the Word of God. You can. You can find fulfillment. I honestly believe mothering and fathering, first of all, it's parenting. First of all, it's husbands and wives. God has called you to do that. Love God first, then your spouse, and then your children. And if you do that, that's what God has called you to do. If you get a ministry beyond that, well, praise the Lord, but don't jettison God, your spouse, and your children to be something fantastic in the ministry because you've blown it. Am I thinking? my personal feeling on that. It's something I've struggled with. I certainly have not done the best in my life at that as well. Another medical doctor wrote a book, again in sarcasm, Approach to How a Mother Can Create a Tragic Child. Here's what they said. First, there are 10 easy steps, they say, for developing your normal, healthy baby into a drug addict or an alcoholic. Here are the 10 steps. Number one, spoil him, give him everything he wants. Two, when he does wrong, you may nag him, but never spank him. Three, foster his total dependence on you so drugs and alcohol can replace you when he's older. Four, protect him from your husband and from all those mean teachers who threaten to spank him from time to time or discipline him. And if they do, sue him. Five, make all of his decisions for him. Since you are a lot older and wiser than he is, he might then mistake and learn, he might make a mistake and then actually learn from them if you do not make all the decisions for him. Criticize his father openly so your son will lose his own self-respect and confidence. Seven, always bail him out of trouble so he will like you. Besides, it might be harmful for your reputation if he gets a police record. And never let him suffer the consequences of his own behavior. Baloney on that. We know that. Again, these are tongue-in-cheek things. Number eight, always step in and solve his problems for him so he can depend on you and run to you when the going gets tough. And when he's older and still has not learned how to solve his own problems, he may run to some other type of habit. Nine, just play it safe. Be sure to nominate your husband and drive him to drink. And number 10, take a lot of prescription drugs yourself so that taking non-prescription drugs won't be a major step for him as he gets older. How to turn a normal child into a tragedy. I was a doctor who wrote that. And another one wrote, how to turn your normal child into a sociopathic criminal. Start with the 10 easy steps we just mentioned and never spank your child. By the way, I was just reading to my wife today, and I thought I had typed in who has abandoned corporal punishment, but what I typed in was who has abandoned capital punishment. According to the United Nations, 170 of their 193 member nations have abandoned and outlawed capital punishment. You wonder why we as a world 170 out of 193 have already outlawed capital punishment. And in case you're wondering, 59 countries in the world prohibit any kind of corporal punishment. 59 prohibit corporal punishment. Spanking. So they go on to say, the person said, don't discipline him. Do not run his life. Let him run yours. Let him manipulate you. Let him play on your guilt if he doesn't get his own way. And don't enforce the household rules if there are any. That way he'll be able to choose the laws in society he will want to break when he's older. And he will not fear the consequences since he's never suffered any. Do not bother him with chores. Do all the chores for him. Then he may be irresponsible when he's older and always blame others when his responsibilities are not done. Be sure to give in every time he throws a temper tantrum. He might hit you if you do not. Don't ever cross him when he's angry. It will also help if you choose to believe his lies. And you may even want to tell a few lies yourself if you want to have a sociopathic, criminal-behaviored child. I trust that we realize that is not the direction we want to go. The point is, God has given us children. Unless we obey God's standard, we're going to produce a disaster. Remember in Luke 2.52, it's an amazing statement, Jesus increased in wisdom and stature in favor with God and man. Jesus God increased in wisdom and favor that means he humbled himself in such a capacity we can hardly even fathom that he increased he who's the omnipotent God he's the omniscient God and yet he willingly laid aside those the independent exercise of his divine attributes is the best way I know how to say it and he grew in knowledge and stature and favor with God and men. He was 100% God, yet 100% man. He lived a life for us that we cannot live. And he died for us a death that we could not die to save ourselves. He's a wonderful Savior. Matter of fact, I think we're going to talk about that for eternity. And we should start talking about that now. That we know this wonderful God who saves. So God gives us the command. And just want to remind you a little, there's a refresher, again, from the book of Proverbs. If you'll just turn there quickly in closing, if you would there please, Proverbs, we're getting close to closing. A guy spoke on Monday, Monday at the Viveco meeting. He said, I'm going to be real brief. It was like 10 minutes later, still going on. And anyway, he's a very nice guy, very nice guy. I asked him, I said, have you played basketball? Because he's taller than me. He said, Pastor Tim, or Mr. Tim, he doesn't know him, he's a pastor. He said, my senior year of high school, I was the number one scoring player in all the state of Kentucky. I had a full ride to play anywhere I wanted to. I just had to sign the paper. Jack Givens came to Boyd County, and they all hooped and hollered for him. But I was actually in Kentucky, Mr. Kentucky Basketball, and I had a full ride to go anywhere. Ravenscraft is his name. He said, do you know what happened to Pastor Tam? He said, I don't know if it was during his senior year, he said, but I was hit by a drunk driver. 15 surgeries later, I've never played basketball again. Never played basketball again. And he looked at me and he said, God is good. You have it all in man's thinking, and you lose that in one accident. And yet, it was not my instigation. God is good. He is good. He's good. My son, Proverbs 3.11, please, as we are on the homestretch. My son despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. And so when you correct your children, it's showing you love them. If you don't love them, you never correct them. If I don't love you as a people, I never tell you that you need to trust Christ as Savior. If I don't love you, I won't tell you to get right with God. I won't tell you to confess your sin and live for the Lord. And if there's sin, confess, get rid of it, repent. If I don't love you, I'll never tell you that. But if I love you, I'm going to tell you, you need to get those things right with God. You need to trust Christ as Savior. 10.13, please, of Proverbs. 10.13, if you would, please. In the lips of him that hath understanding, wisdom is found. But a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding. You say in the modern culture, well, no, a computer is for him who lacks understanding, no. An encyclopedia is for him, probably don't even know what encyclopedias are anymore, is for him, no. No, it says a rod is for him who lacks understanding. If you have a child, and he doesn't mean here that doesn't have information, it's they don't apply it. They know what to do, but they just don't do it. So a person, the child that shows that, this lack of wisdom for living, get out the board of education and apply that to the seat of learning. That does wonders for people. Did wonders for me. I tell you what did wonders for me, it was the fear of that. The fear of that did wonders for me. And by the way, I will never countenance with you abusing your children. Never ever. Just heard of this week, someone in my wife's family, who his father just absolutely spanked him so terribly hard. The last time he did it, he said, my dad will never do that again. me it caused such a friction because now i'm you should discipline yes but if you're angry don't discipline when you're angry you are to you're disciplined out of love and so just a couple of cautions that's not even in my notes per se 19 uh 1918 please to wood there 1918 chasing my son while there is hope Chasing thy son while there's hope and let not the soul spare for his crying. Chasing thy son while there's hope. Does that mean, I'm thinking if while there's hope, then there's gonna be a time when there's not hope. And that son's gonna grab that paddle and he's gonna turn me over his knee because my ploy of having a chance to discipline him is gone while there was hope and now it's too late. Discipline while there's hope. As your children get older, you have to be careful because you don't want to destroy that relationship. We all have children who don't do things as they get older that you necessarily approve of, but that doesn't mean you throw them out. It doesn't mean that you put them away forever. Can I just say, my children know when they do things that I would not care for. And I know when I did things my parents didn't care for either. And so we just sort of didn't talk about those things perhaps. But we ought to chase in them while there's hope. 22, 15 please, 22, 15. I know it's already seven. I see that up there, but I'm just about done. You've said that a couple of times. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it from him. Corporal punishment. It modifies behavior. Corporal punishment modifies behavior. 2313, please. 2313. Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. Now I again, I am absolutely opposed to any kind of physical abuse with your children, or period, period. When Judge Lewis said, my dad grabbed me by the hair and jerked, and I think he may well have been meant that, but grabbed me by the hair and jerked him back into place. I like Judge Lewis. He's a Christian man, and he's intimidating, I'll have to say. He's a big man, but he's always been easy with me. He knows my first name now. He calls me by Tim. Anyway, that's with another, but we're gonna deliver his soul. The crying, I know it's hard. I remember my dad saying, it hurts us more than it hurts you. I didn't believe it then, but I believe it now. The Bible simply says, if you correct him, in other words, if you correct him with a rod, discipline him or her, you make them live an obedient life, they will be a delight to your soul. And fathers, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the world. Is that what it says? The nurture and admonition of the Lord. And then, joy. Children are an heritage from the Lord. They would never lose that. Let's pray. Lord, we just thank you for your word. We thank you for the patience of the folks here this evening. Help us, Lord, as we think about children, that we'll rejoice in children, that we'll leave some shade, that we will not simply expect throw them out into the world having no training at all, but we will spend time, we will invest our lives into their lives. Let me not be so busy doing our thing. that we missed the most important thing that you've called us to do. In Jesus name I pray, amen.